Identity Element by
Chris Dee

So Iason of the Blood,
You arrogant sot.
And your power is vast?
What sickening rot!

Such pomp and formality,
All to proclaim,
You’ll be lady-cat’s bitch,
Iason of the Shame.

Etrigan, do shut up for once, Jason thought sourly.I happen to know you –identify– with Bruce.You’re not really upset I’m going to help them, you just have to
complain about anything I do.

It’s true I admire the Bat’s soul of fire,
A fellow demon trapped with wretched men.
And such men! though they fly, to cuckold an ally
Will bring chaos fit to rip the world again!

“Meddle not with devils”
Is wisdom old and sound,
For revenge feeds demon revels;
We enjoy it, ask around.

Bruce had said the reason to start with
Superman was “full disclosure.”
He said “Once the floodgates are open, Superman will tell me whatever he knows.”He said “Once I know who’s involved and how, I’ll know how to proceed.”He said the League has a monthly poker game to which he’s never been
invited.He said that was
wise, they’d lose their shirts.He
said the way you win at poker isn’t by playing your cards, it’s by playing
the table.

He said he had another guest coming and I should leave the
cave.

I went upstairs.I
found Nutmeg and we played with the fringe of the carpet.I thought about Jason Blood.He
offered to do whatever I asked to ease my pain in this. I wondered if, instead of
some magical favor… I wondered if it might wind up being… hell… giving my
apartment back.

I told myself this couldn’t go on forever. Bruce was
reeling from a horrible devastating shock, but he’d get past it.He would come around and open up to me again.It would take some time and I would give him that but… how much? …at
some point, if he kept shutting me out… It was the League that stuck a knife
in his back and it was Clark that knew and didn’t tell him—but I was the
one living in his house, the one that maybe he didn’t want that close anymore.

I couldn’t believe how foolish I’d been, how safe and
happy I’d let myself become. I’d let myself make a home here.It was his house, not mine, and with this one thing that happened years
ago that I had nothing to do with, it could all be taken away.How could I have been so STUPID!Feline
independence, it was all I knew, and for a few kisses I’d let him, somehow,
take all that away and turn it into—

“Selina?”

Fuck him, he never knocks.I looked up; I don’t think I’ve ever been angrier with him in my
whole life, even that time he kept me from the Katz Collection.

“Just once, as an experiment,” I spat, “Why don’t
you pretend the doorframe is a Joker henchman, make a fist and act
accordingly.”

“J’onn is downstairs.He said your mind was screaming.”

“He should stay the hell out of my head,” I hissed.

“He does.He
works very hard, constantly, not to invade others’ thoughts.Selina, you were screaming.It
wasn’t something he could ignore.”

“I’m sorry I’ve hurt you,” he whispered, and he was
stroking my hair the way you pet a dog.This
was exactly how he sucked me in the first time.The man inside the bat, it’s such a seductive idea:under all that Battitude, he’s a man of flesh and blood, and we could
care about each other.“My poor Selina.”My.Like I’m
something that belongs to him.He
kissed the top of my head.Bastard.This was how he did it.This
was how he took Catwoman’s independence and left me in this sorry place where
my home and my happiness were all tied up with him.“Come downstairs.You’re
going to like what J’onn has to say.”

A part of me wanted to resist, refuse, and just plain
SCRATCH HIM.The rest of me was
desperate to hear what it was I would like.

I felt his fingers at my chin, turning my face up to meet
his.

“Selina, last year you dug in like a wildcat to get me to
leave the cave during Hell Month, remember?Time to pay up, Kitten.Come
downstairs.It gets better,
starting now.”

On the way down to the cave, I let myself hope, just for a
second, that Bruce was right, that it really might get better.It was a scary feeling, hope.

We were walking down the stairs into the Great Hall.Bruce explained why he was bringing “J’onn” in before taking this
to the full League.

“Clark might revere everything the JLA stands for, but
the League is the closest thing to family
J’onn has known on this planet.He
deserves better than to have this sprung on him at a meeting, in front of all of
them.”

“And?”

“You think I have an ulterior motive for seeing him
alone?”

“You said you were going to play the table,” I reminded
him.“If the League is like
family to him, their turning on one of their own would have to strike him as—
what?”I stopped because he was
staring at me just like he had in the cave, right before he turned on his heel
and left.

“You are quite the little strategist, aren’t you?” he
graveled—Batman’s deepest gravel, not quite vault disapproval but
something close.Then he
resumed in a more conversational tone.“Yes,
that possibility had occurred to me.So
did the possibility that, because of the way he feels about the League, he might
think just like Clark, but moreso.”

“JLA first, last and always, no matter who they have to
step on to keep it running smoothly, yay-team?”

“Yes.”

“And the only way to find out was to have him over and
ask?”

“Yes.”

“Here, in private, where it couldn’t bite you
unexpectedly in front of the rest of them.”

He grunted, but said nothing more until we reached the
grandfather clock, then he turned to me.

“I still wanted to tell him first and privately so he
could deal with it alone and privately.That’s why I didn’t want you in the cave, Selina.I wasn’t shutting you out.”

I couldn’t answer.He’d
already opened the clock passage, which meant an end to our private
conversation.When we reached
the main cavern, I saw they had swiveled two of the workstation chairs to face
each other.That’s how Bruce
broke the news.In my mind’s eye,
I saw them sitting there… It seemed strangely tactful (for Bruce), and I was
sorry I’d questioned his motives.

Martian Manhunter was still seated; not exactly slumped, but
you could tell he was reeling from the shock.For one thing, he was teal.I
know zilch about Martian biology.I
know he’s a shapeshifter, and I presume the green I’ve always seen him in is
his natural color.I know
when human beings go a full three shades redder, whiter, or grayer than normal,
it means something radical is going on inside.I don’t know exactly what happens chemically to make Martian skin bluer,
but I didn’t have to be a telepath to know there was powerful emotion fueling
it.

“Hello, Selina,” he said mildly.

“Good morning, Ï’ônń,” I answered.

Bruce shot me a look.And Ï’ônń chuckled.It
was quiet for a few seconds, and I wondered if this was the awkward pause it
seemed to be or if they were talking to each other telepathically.

Then Ï’ônń looked directly at me.

“Your mind was screaming,” he said simply.

“Your skin is teal,” I told him, just as frankly.“Just one of those days for all of us, I guess.”

He nodded.

“There are no words to explain something like this in
human language,” he said finally.“For
a Martian, such callous disregard for the mind of another being is tantamount to
blasphemy.We are taught at a very
early age to respect the thoughts and mental privacy of ALL others.To alter another’s mind—to invade a—a colleague
and friend’spsyche—to manipulate his memory without
his knowledge and against his will?This
idea is so egregiously foul, there is no way to express… What Zatanna and the
others have done is the Martian equivalent of—of—crashing a party and
defecating in the punchbowl.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that.Bruce had an ally.It
wasn’t going to be him against the whole League.Not everybody with a superpower was blind to what had
happened and what it meant.

“I would catch mental glimpses,” he was saying,
“glimpses of something when Hawkman and Green Arrow would go at it.But it never made any sense to me, so I dismissed it.For that, I apologize, Bruce.If
I had thought to look into it, if this could have come to light in some other
way—”

I thought that might happen.Heroes. They’re such a mess sometimes.

“Let me interrupt you right there,” I put in.“I have a suggestion from the world of self-seeking unprincipled
criminal infidels.I suggest you
don’t turn this into one of those ‘everybody is at fault’ deals.That’s a cheap way to excuse the ones who really are to blame, and it
spits in the face of everyone they’ve hurt.And that’s you, Ï’ônń, almost as much as Bruce.I can’t imagine anybody else being more upset by this or—”

“Flash,” he said softly.

Then he looked up at Bruce.

“His mind has been screaming as loud as hers was.I thought it was because of Sue.But
if they told him about this…”

He trailed off.He
and Bruce got that look, when they’re speaking telepathically.I assumed it was because J’onn didn’t think I knew Wally’s identity
(which meant he really didn’t go snooping around in unsuspecting brains—score another point in the not-all-metas-are-shits column) or else it had to
do with that earlier Flash, Wally’s predecessor, who cast that deciding vote
to alter Dr. Light.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” I said, with as close to a
half-smile as I could manage.

I went back upstairs.Alfred made me tea.He’s
convinced it helps.I’ll admit
it’s warming, but I couldn’t find it comforting.His gesture, so well meaning, was just another reminder of how much I’d
settled in here.The
“Bat-family” was a family, but it wasn’t mine.It was Bruce’s.They had
made me feel at home, and like any cat given half a chance, I’d made myself at
home.In all that hominess, I
started feeling safe and loved and settled.And I forgot that cats have to be free.Cats don’t need anyone.If
you need them, you can’t be free, you’re trapped.

I was trapped—and I had no one to blame but myself.For a few kisses I’d let him… I couldn’t go to Jason now and take
advantage of his offer because Bruce didn’t want it. I didn’t have the
option to steal anymore because it would ruin our life together and that had
become so important to me I couldn’t even consider… and he could toss me out
any time he wanted.This was his
house, not mine.And I let myself
feel safe here.I let myself think
I’d found everything I had lost: a home, a family… love.

I let myself think he had given me everything I’d
lost.

But it’s none of those things.It’s just Batman’s house and Batman’s butler and a
garden out back where the old Robin married the old Batgirl.It’s a goddamn crimefighter commune, and I let myself
pretend it was some kind of—

I looked up and J’onn was standing there.

“Screaming again?” I asked.

“Not exactly.Bruce
and I are about to leave for the Watchtower, and I wished to talk to you before I
left.”He paused—one of those
‘choosing my words carefully’ pauses that you just know means fun times
ahead.“You realize, don’t you,
Selina, that he is very different with you than with anyone else.The man you know is vastly dissimilar to—”

“I’m not some cabana bunny he picked up on the Riviera,
Ï’ônń,” I cut him off.“I’ve
faced him on a rooftop, I brought cookies to a friend he put in traction last
Hell Month, I know what he’s like.”

“I don’t doubt it. That is not what I meant.Selina, it’s not that we see something in him that you don’t.It’s that you’re allowed to see a part of him none of us are privy
to, even me, and I’m a telepath.”

“What’s your point, Ï’ônń?”

“It is home.When he’ll be the man with you he won’t be with anyone else, when you
make compromises for him you wouldn’t make for any other person, that is home
and that is family.”

“I thought you didn’t go poking around in other
people’s heads uninvited?”

“I don’t.I
didn’t invade your thoughts just now, I simply… recognized them.I lost my home and family as well, and I had to find another.One that may not outlast this day—but I am going to fight for it.Don’t throw yours away.”

I went down to the cave. I badly wanted a few moments alone
with Bruce before he left to deal with the full League.Unfortunately, for all the hidden feelings J’onn had picked up on since
his arrival, he was oblivious on that one.He walked with me down to the cave and kept hanging around the
transporters. I guess his mind was thoroughly locked onto the upcoming “fight
to save his family” (i.e. the big throwdown at the Watchtower), he just
didn’t realize and wouldn’t take the hint.I only wanted some alone-time, a minute or two, no more, with Bruce
before he left.

Bruce was already at the transporters and thoroughly in
bat-mode, of course, so all I could manage was a soft touch of his cheek, which
he tolerated—barely.

“Give ‘em hell,” I whispered. He didn’t say a word,
he didn’t grunt, he barely even breathed, but there was this wicked spark in
his eye, just for a split second.I
knew that spark—angry sex—passion, violence, pure mainline Bruce.

Again, I couldn’t help but smile.They’d never know what hit them.

I will never be the sort of woman who waits in the drawing
room or sits around the cave while he goes off and fights the good fight.I knew I had to go out.Normally,
it would be the catsuit and the museum, Egyptian wing, or maybe Cartier’s.But today I had a much better alternative.

Jason opened the door before I knocked.

“Let me guess, you sensed I was coming?” I asked with a
naughty grin.“You know, between
the magic and the telepaths and the superhearing, it’s no wonder Bruce gets
edgy around you people.Individually,
you might be fine, but collectively, after the third or fourth episode in a
single day—”

“’You people,’” Jason quoted acidly. “Selina, please, I have spent years trying to disabuse the Justice League of
the notion that I am their ‘Wizard on Call,’ so to speak, simply because
they include my name on their rosters.You
yourself are technically on the rolls, I believe.You’ve helped them on occasion.You
would certainly take offense if I included you in a sweeping generalization
about—”

“Yes,” I admitted.“Yes, Jason, touché.It
was a figure of speech and I apologize.Let’s
start again.”

I knocked on the doorframe, and he assumed a look of dry
sarcasm as he intoned, “Why Selina, what a delightful surprise.”He ushered me in and I saw he had a number of large, old books collected
on the table.“I take it we’re
ready to proceed?” he said, assuming that look I can only describe as the
‘supernatural badass.’

“Yes,” I told him.“But in a different way than we planned.Bruce had a hissy, as expected.”

“Ah,” he said after a pause.

“He can’t stand the idea of any kind of spell worked on
him, and I have to respect that.I
mean, he was right all along… ”I
trailed off.I would feel so much
better, so much less vulnerable, if I could know he was protected that
way.I sighed.“He says he’ll handle Zatanna himself… and that I have to trust
him.”

“I see.So I
am dismissed as court magician after all.”

I looked up at him.

“Not entirely.There
is still something you can do for me that shouldn’t offend Bruce’s scruples,
something that serves my idea of justice.I want to use magic to invade their privacy this time
around.I want to see
what’s going on up there today, at the Watchtower, when they have their
conclave to settle this mess.”

“There is a certain symmetry to that,” Jason said with
a smile.“Come.”

I followed him back to what used to be my exercise room.And I felt sick.

“Every magician of worth has a sanctum sanctorum,”
he declared with his hand on the doorknob, “that is both repository of
knowledge and power center, a cella vires.Like Batman’s cave, it is more than a space for convenient storage, it
is an expression of who the magic-user is as a magic-user, an aspect of his
being.What I am saying, Selina, is
that it is no small thing that I admit you to into this room.The seeing ritual we shall undertake together begins when you step
through this door and enter this space that is so intertwined with my magick.”

I felt sick.I
knew what I had to do.

And I knew what a crock it was when Clark talked about the
hard decision he’d wrestled with.It
wasn’t hard at all, knowing the right thing to do. The hard part was
sucking it up and doing it.I
took a deep breath, forced down the butterflies, opened my mouth, and hoped for
the best.

“Jason, I spanked Superman this morning for not coming
clean to his friend about a damaging secret.It would be a level of hypocrisy even I’m not capable of for me to
stand here and not tell you… to let you go on with this thinking… Jason.Last year, when Janus and Hella took over the park, I… I needed my
costume and supplies, there was no time to go out to the manor and… Jason, I
broke into this apartment and went into that room to use your Tempus Stones, so
I could get my costume out of the past when this was my apartment.”

“Very creative,” he said dryly.“I wondered if you would tell me.”

“You knew then?”

“Bruce knew his mind was violated without knowing the
particulars.Do you imagine
it’s any different for a magician and his cella vires?With something so personal and of your essence, it is
impossible not to know on some level if it has been… touched.”

“I’m sorry, Jason.I didn’t realize back then that there was a personal side to it.I thought it was just a room.I’m
terribly sorry to have done that to you.I’ll
do anything I can to make it right.”

“As you say, Selina, you didn’t realize.And there were pressing circumstances that caused you to act as
you did, but I notice you haven’t mentioned them.Instead of reminding me that the park was overrun with demons and
Berserkers, several trying to kill Bruce, that he was hampered by an enchantment
reliving the pain of old injuries as he fought, how Superman himself was unable
to slow the events racing towards Ragnarok… instead of explaining all that in
order to justify your actions, you merely apologized once you understood
the personal nature of the injury you had inflicted…And that, Selina, is good of you.I
accept your apology.And that is
what I meant by symmetry.”

“I don’t understand.”

“No, of course you don’t. Come inside, you will
understand soon.”

He pointed me to a small, low table with two chairs.I sat, and he took a strange bowl off the shelf and laid it in front of
me.The outside was silver; the
inside looked like mother of pearl.“You’ll
be surprised to learn, Selina, that you have already paid for that day, breaking
into my sanctum sanctorum and stealing my magic by using those Tempus Stones.Do you recall helping me take the Leabhar Seun from Lyle of
Avalon?”

“Of course, that’s how I found out about Etrigan.”

“Yes.That
was how you paid the debt.The help
you gave me that night, obtaining the Leabhar Seun, but also the comfort you gave
me when Lyle sprung her trap and brought on that—that—identity crisis
for lack of a better word, plus the burden of knowing about Etrigan… all that
was your debt to me, Selina.Paid
in full.”

“Jason, that’s ridiculous. That was more than a year
before I even gave you my apartment.”

“Temporal debts work that way sometimes; it’s all
interconnected.You helped me that
night because you would one day violate this room, and it is because you helped
me then that I am able to help you now.”

He held up a bottle of blue glass with a stopper of silver
filigree carved with Celtic knots.

“Water of Avalon,” he announced, pulling the stopper
and pouring the bottle’s contents into the bowl.“I returned the Leabhar Seun to Lyle when I thought she had learned her
lesson—and this was my price.The
Water of Avalon is the stuff of magical seeing, Selina.”

When the bowl was filled, he set the bottle aside and sat
in the chair opposite me, laid his hands on the table on each side of the bowl,
palms up, and looked up at me with that piercing, supernatural-badass glare.

I looked back at him, down at his hands and back at him.And I reminded myself of the sixteen times I’d repeated to Bruce how I
trusted Jason Blood.Then I
hesitantly laid my hands palms down touching his.I felt a whirl of red, fiery malice.

“That’s Etrigan,” Jason said blandly.“Don’t be afraid, he is in good spirits today.He is something of a fan of Batman’s.He is quite eager to witness the wrath of the man-demon.”

“So am I,” I whispered.

“Hush.Still
your mind.Concentrate on what you
would see… The Watchtower, the League, the Batman, now in this present time…
And look into the water.”

I looked at the bowl, the creamy whiteness of the mother of
pearl visible through the clear water. I thought of the Watchtower conference
room. I had been there once, after Prometheus, I waited there while they cleared
out the press… I visualized the room in as much detail as I could remember.I held the image and thought of the present… Batman would be there…
and Martian Manhunter… and Superman…the
creamy whiteness of the bowl became glassy-white, and the water took on a
silvery mirror appearance.It
became harder to distinguish the water from the bowl… I thought of the
Watchtower and suddenly… there it was.We
were looking right into it like a movie screen.

Jason’s hands curled slowly around mine and he took a
long vibrating breath that sounded like a snore.

“There,” he said at last.“We can relax now and watch, as long as our hands remain in contact.”

“Talk has its place, naturally,” Jason announced after
about an hour, “too often, one has to keep the heroes from blindly throwing
themselves into certain death.But
when they finally do choose to exercise speech as well as shiny rings and magic
bracelets, they can become tedious. And then one almost wishes they’d go back to
the blind throwing again.”

I just stared at him for a second.It honestly took a few moments to process individual words.There had been such a monsoon of rhetorical nonsense.

“How,” I managed at last, “can these people… function…
in the world?”

“I recall having the same thought about the dons of
Oxford,” Jason said blandly, “around 1360.The debate that day was translating the bible
into the vernacular against the wishes of the papacy… As I recall, they
didn’t reach a conclusion until 1610.”

We had endured four cycles around the table.Someone would say their piece—and then, often as not, Wonder Woman
would step in like Dan Rather after a presidential address, repeating what they
had said, explaining the difficult parts in case anybody didn’t get it, and
then telling everyone what they should think about it.

“Themyscirans tend to have certain predictable attitudes,
in my experience,” was Jason’s summary.

I noticed that sometimes Aquaman cut her off, and sometimes
he just sat there grinding a knuckle into the table. Everyone else seemed to
tune her out, like they were used to it.I
did too, and I used that time while she was talking to scope out the others.

Flash was certainly taking it the hardest.I remembered J’onn in the cave saying he would be more upset than
anybody.Green Lantern looked
shocked, but when he spoke, it was with a “who am I to judge” attitude that
would have pissed me off under other circumstances.He was one of the “Big-7,” he was in that meeting.The chair he sat in made it his place to judge.But I couldn’t really feel angry.I got the feeling he didn’t care as far as the debate went.His eyes kept going over to Flash.All
he saw was a friend in pain and that was his concern, not the big ethical
questions the rest of them would argue to death.So I couldn’t be angry, even though he wasn’t exactly on our side.It was exactly how I felt.I
didn’t care about the big philosophical issues either.I only cared that they hurt Bruce.

Plastic Man was next.To say he was stunned and disgusted does not begin to do him justice.Every time I’ve met him, he works it in that he’s a reformed criminal,
and I guess there’s no zealot like a convert, because he’s got that
black-and-white thing down pat: This was wrong, just flat out wrong,
it was something criminals do, not heroes, and certainly not The
Justice League.

“It is painful to see one’s heroes fall, isn’t it,”
Jason remarked in a rather bored tone when Eel had finished.

“Yes,” I murmured, “But there’s no growth without
pain.”Jason looked at me
strangely and I didn’t know why I’d said it.“Maybe it’s better like this,” I demurred, “for him to see
they’re not perfect, rather than to blindly assume anything the League does
must be right and wind up getting bit.”

“Like Bruce was?”

“Bruce never had blind faith in anyone, Jason.”

“But he did.He
believed in himself, Selina.He
believes in Bruce Wayne and his ability to take on all comers with his mind
and his body, and what he himself has been able to develop them into.By attacking that, by robbing him of his control of that—Selina, for
all your indignation, I wonder if you understand the true nature of the crime
that was committed by these ‘heroes.’”

Diana finally got the floor, officially, not just offering
color commentary on what everyone else had said.Just as Jason had said, she was thoroughly predictable as a
“peace through superior firepower” kinda gal: whatever it took to make
someone understand, using whatever tools are necessary.She didn’t view someone as unbalanced as Dr. Light as a person having
any rights whatsoever to his mind, body, or will. He was a rabid animal that
should be put down.

She never once looked at Batman, but I watched only him
while she was talking.She never
alluded to what happened to him, it was as if it was in no way related to
the subject under discussion.Dr. Light deserved it, that was the beginning and the end of the conversation.I watched him watch her talk, knowing he was seeing the same thing I was:the ultimate vindication of the protocols, the ultimate vindication of
everything he said about superpowers being open to abuse.The mortal man objected to what they had done, so they used their
powers to prevent his stopping them.Whatever
it takes to make someone understand using whatever tools are necessary.

Aquaman spoke last, and I was reminded he was the one in
this group who was a professional politician.He was, like J’onn, a telepath, and as such he was “appalled.”
And yet he admitted he had been known to quiet the minds of
out-of-control sea life—although he was quick to add that, in those cases, the
animals were poisoned and diseased as a result of surfacers’ criminal
disruption of the aquatic ecosystem.But
he could, in a sense, understand where the Leaguers were coming from in so far
as the initial question concerning Dr. Light.

Wonder Woman puffed up and looked about to launch into her
approving recapitulation of his remarks, but he held up a hand in her direction.

“I’m not finished,” he said sternly, “I said what I
feel as a telepath and as a member of this League.There is another role I assume which offers me a perspective none of you
have.I am a king.I am not a citizen of a democratic republic; I am a ruling monarch.We don’t vote in Atlantis: we debate, we discuss, and then
ultimately I decide.What I
decide will please one group and displease another, every time.And unlike some,” here he shot a withering look at Diana, “I do not
have the luxury of pretending the argument I personally agree with is the only
one of worth.Because those people
on the ‘other side’ are not rabid dogs and lowly criminals; they are my
subjects, no less than the ones I agree with.If it is a question of great moral and ethical import, I will always—regardless of my personal beliefs—err on the side of caution,”
his voice shifted on that last word, the way Batman’s does talking about
justice.

“The day I don’t, the day I use my power to support my
view regardless of what would be best for my subjects, is the day I cease to be a
ruler and become a despotic tyrant.This
group, these seven rogue Leaguers were divided in their views.No decision of this kind should EVER hinge on one man’s vote.This was a question of monumental moral and ethical import, and they were
DIVIDED.It is obscene that
they did not err on the side of caution.I
move that we dispense with any more of this whaleshit and call the surviving
members of this ‘secret inner League’ up here to answer for themselves.I personally would like to hear Oliver Queen explain to me what kind of
crimefighter stands by and lets this happen in front of him on the grounds that
he was ‘outvoted.’”

“Wow,” I murmured, “That was almost worth sitting
through the hour and a half of, what did he say, whaleshit?”

Jason scowled like I said he’d look good in pink polka
dots.

“I said almost,” I repeated.

The League took a
recess, thank God, while they summoned the surviving members of the cabal:Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, Zatanna—and technically Atom,
although he had dropped out of sight after discovering his ex-wife killed Sue
Dibny and leaving her at Arkham.Nobody
expected him to show and everyone seemed to agree that he’d suffered enough.

The recess gave
Jason and I a chance to let go of each other’s hands.We stood up, stretched our legs, and in Jason’s case, he
went off to the kitchen.He
returned with a tray and set out a plate of biscotti, another of chocolate, two
small glasses and a small bottle of wine.

“Very important
to have sugar in the bloodstream when channeling even the smallest amounts of
magic,” he decreed.

“And the
bottle,” I said, pointing.“Very
important to have a belt or two in there when listening to even the smallest
amount of crimefighters pontificating?”

“Vin
santo,”
he answered, pouring, “Italian sweet wine, I’m quite fond of dipping the
biscotti in it—your cell phone is about to ring.You’ll have excellent reception as well as privacy on the terrace.”

I reached for my
purse, and, sure enough, just as my hand touched it, Bruce’s ring sounded.I went out to the terrace and heard the familiar:: Selina, secure the line. ::

I felt such a pang
hearing that voice.All he was
going through, it was so wrong.As
if he didn’t have enough pain already.I
wanted us to be in bed, holding each other, with all this behind us.But he wasn’t calling me for that kind of comfort.After all that self-important bluster, he wanted to hear me light and
heedless and feline.

“Hey,
Handsome,” I purred.“How’s
it going?”

:: As expected. ::

“As
expected-good, or as expected-we’re screwed?”

:: Poker. ::

“Meow.”

:: We’ll be
going back in a few minutes… Selina, you’re watching, aren’t you? ::

Busted.It had been a long time since he’d so completely read me.

“How did you
know?”

:: Poker. Playing the table.You’re at
Jason’s, you’re watching, you’re using magic to do it.::

“Yes.”

There was a long
pause during which I decided to answer the question he wouldn’t ask.

“And that’s
the only way I’m using it, Bruce.Nothing
I’m doing here will touch you in any way.You can trust me and believe that, or not.If you can read me so well that you knew I’d be here, then
you should know you can trust me on the rest.”

:: I would
still rather you didn’t use it at all.I
would prefer— ::

“I know.And I’m doing it anyway.It’s
hardly the first time I’ve done something you’d rather I didn’t.The entire Impressionist gallery at the GMA comes to mind.”

He grunted.It was music to my ears.The
grunt was pure Batman, my Batman, the real Batman.Not the Uber-Psychobat pulling back from me and everyone else because of
what Superman had done.

:: I have to
go, :: he graveled—but
he didn’t hang up.Instead, there
was a long pause, and then,::
Selina, when this is over, tell Jason to show you Zatanna’s apartment. ::

The words “witch
hunt” were used a lot when the meeting reconvened and the cabal were called up
one at a time to explain themselves.Green
Arrow went so far as to give a whole history lesson:

“Y’see, witches
have a numb spot somewhere on their body because they’ve had sex with the
devil.So to find out if someone is
a witch, here’s what you do: stick a needle into every inch of our skin and if
we don’t say ‘Ai’ each time: Guilty! The way of the matchstick we go.”

Plastic Man
started to say something about there being a reason witches were hunted in the
first place, that nobody liked the idea of someone using magical muscle to
victimize their neighbors.I
couldn’t follow very well because Jason was chuckling.

“I take it
Etrigan has something to share?” I guessed.

“He does, on the
subject of demonic lovemaking and the aftereffects.”

“Do tell,” I
said.

“Selina, I would
not repeat this for the world, especially not to a lady.”

“Oh, c’mon,
Jason, it’s been three hours and this is the first six seconds that are
interesting.”

“Let’s just
say Etrigan strongly denies that a female who has enjoyed the –cough– pleasure
of demonic caresses becomes in any way unresponsive, quite the reverse, he says.And he has some intriguing theories as to how impotent and inept human
males could have arrived as such a ridiculous conclusion.”

I smiled.

“Quite the
hellacious sex machine, eh, Etty?”

“Selina please,
I beg you, do not encourage him.”

We returned our
attention to the Justice League.A
new tension had settled on the table. Aquaman and J’onn were both going after
Green Arrow.The others, especially
Flash and Green Lantern, had gone quiet.

Up until now,
Jason had seemed bored with the proceedings.He was suddenly riveted to the scene before us.

“Because
sometimes you HAVE to do what you’d rather NOT do!” Arrow was yelling. “And SOMETIMES you don’t even have the luxury of KNOWING it’s the right
thing. And you LIVE with that because it’s the PRICE YOU PAY for DOING WHAT
NEEDS DONE. And THAT is as much a part of being a hero as running into the
burning building.”

“We no longer
know if you’ll run into that building,” J’onn replied calmly, in marked
contrast to Green Arrow’s angry shouts.“If
it’s some corporate headquarters strip-mining valuable resources, you might
decide the greater good is served by letting it burn.”

“Of course,”
Jason said quietly.“J’onn and
Arthur were part of the first League incarnation.They were both outsiders and the League offered them a sense of
connectedness with the rest of the world. The Justice League is their ‘baby,’
in a sense, and this goes beyond standard ‘teenage rebellion’—this is
your sixteen year old stealing the family car, robbing a bank and murdering
thirteen people.”

“The others have
gone quiet,” I noted.

“Now that
they’re over the initial shock, they’ve started to notice the strain between
Batman and Superman.They must know
there’s a bond there, just about everyone does.We can see the tension between them from here, Selina.In the room, it must be palpable.”

I watched and he
was right, just about everyone was sneaking glances at Batman and Superman.

“So now they get
it.If this is big enough to drive
a wedge between them…”

“Yes.Quite.”

It went on.Aquaman was relentless.He
went after Hawkman and Zatanna for disrespecting their fellow Leaguers so
thoroughly that they first formed this secret inner group to do what they knew
no full League would ever consent to, and then had the audacity to proceed even
over the objections of their fellow conspirators.He went after Green Arrow and Black Canary for not fighting for their
beliefs.They were the ones in that circle, they knew what was going
on, and they had a duty to fight for what they knew to be right.

When it was over,
each of the four had the chance to make a final statement.Zatanna whined that she “never meant to hurt any of them”—it was
a disgusting display and I was delighted when Jason muttered something about
“conjuring up a little responsibility for what you do with your magicks.”

Hawkman did that
much; he didn’t make excuses.He
behaved like the Nazis at Nuremberg, but he didn’t make excuses.He didn’t accept that the panel he sat before had any authority to
judge his actions.He did what he
did, he’d do it again.The end.

“You know I
loved Hal.You know I loved Barry.This has been twisting like a corkscrew in my chest for years.Do you think I wanted to sully their memories?There’s not a thing any of you can do to me to add to the hell I’ve
known living with this.”

It occurred to me,
listening to them as I held Jason Blood’s hands with Etrigan’s hellfire
coursing through his veins, that I would like to test that little theory.

“Selina,”
Jason said evenly, “don’t let the hatred into your heart.It will make a hole there.”

“I want to hurt
them, Jason.I want it so badly.”

“I know.Now let it go.”

J’onn was
talking.

“If any villain
had used magic or technology to program the mind of another being to change
their moral code and bring it into agreement with his own, if a member of this
League tried to stop it and was prevented in this way, there would be NO DEBATE
WHATSOEVER about right, wrong, gray areas, slippery slopes, or witch hunts.Why because Hawkman, Zatanna, Green Arrow and Black Canary are in this
League do we put them in another category?Are there now to be two sets of right and wrong?One for the Justice League and one for everyone else?”

It was very
eloquent, but I just wanted to hurt them.I
thought of Bruce clenching his fist as he had another nightmare.I wanted to see them suffer, I wanted to hear the screaming.

“Don’t let the
hate in,” Jason repeated.“Trust
him.”

Over Batman and
J’onn’s strong objections, the “Justice” League decided no actions were
to be taken against the former members involved in “the incident” beyond
revoking their Reservist status and “barring them from using any League
‘services or equipment’—Watchtower, teleporters, etc.”

Batman also
instructed them to reveal all that had happened to their JSA, Birds of Prey, and
other teammates, because the other teams needed to be aware of what they had
done, and each individual would have to decide for themselves if they wished to
continue working with them.

“Tell them or I
will” was the phrase he used.

He was looking at
Superman when he said it.

Once the former
members were gone, Batman addressed the remaining Leaguers. He informed them
that if anything like this was to happen again—or was even considered—the League would be instantly disbanded, the Watchtower would be shut down
and dismantled, and he would use every resource at his disposal to ensure that
no Justice League ever formed again.

Wonder Woman went
ballistic—no single person, not even Batman, had that kind of power over a
group like the Justice League!They
were bigger than any one man! It was ludicrous and insulting to believe that he
could exert that kind of control or make that kind of demand!

Batman reached
silently into his belt, pulled out a small device the size of a credit card and
hit a button. The Watchtower plunged into darkness and then that deep voice that
makes my toes curl whenever I hear it uttered two simple words:

“Watch
me.”

The grumbles of
dissent started, but were instantly silenced as J’onn stood up and walked around the
table to stand next to Batman.“And
he wouldn’t be alone,” he said firmly.

Batman restored
the power as he and J’onn stared around the table at the others. J’onn was the
one to finally break the silence.

“Regardless of
your personal beliefs,” he said, “permanently manipulating the mind of
another being—especially against their will or without their knowledge—is
flat out wrong. And a Justice League—any Justice League—that engages in
such practices to impose its will on others does not deserve to exist.We’re better than that. We should
be better than that. If you don’t understand that, get out now.Your personal beliefs are your own, but the Justice League will not
engage in this behavior again.If
you can’t accept that, you don’t want to be in this League, and no matter
what abilities you bring to the table, we don’t want you here.”

Diana,
ever the diplomat (and clearly the one most offended by the idea of someone that
wasn’t her dictating the way it was going to be), attempted to diffuse the
situation by calling for a vote. There was a harsh, growling “NO!”
that, had I not been looking directly at him, I would have sworn came from
Bruce. It could have been the water we were looking through, the details were a
bit unclear, but I could swear I saw that teal color creeping back into J’onn as
he glared at Diana.

“No. No more votes.As Leon McKinley, I
spent a great deal of time in Washington last year, as all of you know.What private time I had, I spent at the Jefferson Memorial.There is a quote on its rotunda that fascinated me.‘I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every
form of tyranny over the mind of man.’That
man is the architect of your democracy, Diana.‘I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every
form of tyranny over the mind of man.’We will NOT vote on this.The
morality of the League will not be decided by consensus.

“Those of us who see this abuse of power for what
it is will not stand aside this time and let it occur under a banner of
‘Justice.’‘Almighty God hath created the mind free,’ that’s what
your Thomas Jefferson said.The
JUSTICE League will not act like this ever again, or the Justice League
will no longer exist.It will cease
be a Justice League in anything but name—and if it takes my last
breath, I swear to you I will not allow any of you to use that name to expunge
the good, the self-sacrifice and heroism this organization has come to
represent.The Justice League DOES
NOT do this.I WILL NOT be a
part of any organization that would do this.If you will not be a part of an organization that won’t, leave.And having left, if you use your powers to impose your will and code on
others, know that the Justice League will stand against you as we would any
tyranny over the mind of man.”